Considered a legend of Australian cricket, Greg Chappell isn't really a figure that is adored in India. After all, under his stint as coach of India, team saw their captain Sourav Ganguly not just lose the leadership role but lose captaincy as well. To rub furhter salt on fans' wound, the Men in Blue were infamously knocked out of the 2007 World Cup group stages with an opening match loss against Bangladesh.
And 14 years later since the debacle, which saw Chappell lose his job, the 72-year-old Aussie hasn't changed his view about the decision he made during his tenure as the coach from 2005 to 2007.
He felt the Ganguly was someone who wasn't willing to work hard and just wanted control over the team.
“Ganguly was the one who approached me about coaching India. I had other approaches but I decided that since John Buchanan was coaching Australia… I would love to coach the most populous, fanatical cricket country in the world, and that opportunity came about because Sourav, who was the captain, made sure that I did,” he said during Cricket Life Stories podcast.
“The two years in India were challenging on every front. The expectations were ridiculous. Some of the issues were around Sourav being captain. He didn’t particularly want to work hard. He didn’t want to improve his cricket. He just wanted to be in the team as captain, so that he could control things,” Chappell added.
